The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.

Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ. You will have to register before you can post or view full size images in the forums.

Muddle's random map generator

Greetings all,
it's been forever since my last post. Finally after a long hiatus i have been able to spend a little time on map related projects. So here's a link to my random geomorph dungeon generator I have been working on.

Very nice. A few too many pillars for my tastes, but that's subjective. I was a little surprised to notice that you didn't keep everything connected. In most maps I looked at, there are at least a couple spots where two tiles connect to each other and nothing else. I think I'd like more tiles that were mostly, but not completely empty space, too, but I can't be sure of that unless I try it. Right now it looks just a bit too busy for me. One more thing... A dark background for the non-map portions would probably make things stand out alot better.

Yes, i do agree with your feedback. I do like pillars, but because this was a simple test to see if the javascript code would even work I only added the minimum number of geomorphs, and most of those had pillars, so if I add more pillarless geomorphs it should even things out a bit. The disconnected rooms are generated by the formula I concocted to randomly assemble geomorphs. the formula is simple, and those disconnects are the "mistakes" in the formula. All the tiles are simply pencil sketches that were scanned, I am thinking that I would replace the tile sketches with more completed pixel-art style tiles. I am thinking of something that falls somewhere inbetween old-school video game rpg tiles and the tabletop rpg top-down perspective tiles and game-mats. attached is a completely unfinished example. I know this is all kinda goofy, but I am having fun not taking things to seriously. hence the pixel graphics approach.

Looks nice, man. The color shifts on the floor tiles are very important to keep it all from looking monotonous, so good job there.

If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)

All,
I have been working some more on this project and started to think about caves and caverns. Obviously cave walls are different than stonework walls. So I took a bit of a different approach to them. The attachment shows examples of both the Cavern walls and the dungeon stonework walls I am experimenting with. My question is: Do these work together ?(i.e. would they look out of place if shown on one map with both standard dungeon rooms and a few caverns as well? ) Your feedback is much appreciated!

The hues, tones, and linework have to be similar for it to work and I think these work great. Soooo...good job there, mate.

If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)